I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of an animal trying to break into the shack. It was a large feline about the size of a car with teeth as big as my head. I grabbed my gun and after a couple of shots it ran away. After that, the elf and I decided to take turns on lookout until the morning. When dawn came, I woke up the elf and we quickly rummaged through the bandits supplies to see if we could find anything useful before we set off. I went through a pile of old weapons and armor and found a leather belt that I could use to hold my gun. I tried it out and it feels way better than keeping it in my waistband. I also found a few water skins so I took two for me and the elf. I kept going through their things until I tossed aside what looked like a walking stick and the elf got mad at me.
“Hey that’s mine!” She shouted. “What? That stick?” I said confusingly. “It’s a staff!” She yelled at me. “Wait, you mean like a magical staff?” I asked. “Mhm.” She murmured. “You know magic?” I asked. “Mhm. I know healing and wind magic.” She said.
No shot I got this lucky. I can get this chick to teach me some magic before I find somewhere to drop her off. This has to be that goddess’s doing, there’s no way the first person I meet knows healing magic of all things.
“Can you teach me some magic?” I asked. “Maybe… Do you have a weapon?” She asked. “Yeah, why?” I said. “You’ll need to channel your magical energy through a catalyst, like a sword or a staff.” She said. “Will this work?” I showed her my gun. “Hmm… I don’t know, I’ve never seen anything like that before. But it should work.” She said.
“What if it doesn’t work?” I asked. “Then you’ll need to get a new weapon.” She said. “Alright, we’ll worry about that later. We gotta head out soon to look for food, water and supplies. Can you talk me through the basics of magic while we walk?” I said. “Yeah sure.” She said. “Alright let’s get going.” I told her. “Ok.” The elf grabbed her staff and a wizard’s robe made out of an animal’s pelt. “Before we head out, what’s your name?” I asked. “It’s Voyd.” She said. “I’m Jeffrey but you can just call me Jeff.” I replied.
We went out into the desolate wilderness walking in the opposite direction of the forest. Voyd told me there are bigger and more dangerous creatures near the forest and bodies of fresh water. As we walked she talked about a bunch of magical mumbo jumbo. She said that learning magic was like learning a language. But instead of using words to string together a sentence, magic involves a set of commands that when strung together create a spell. For example, healing magic can be as simple as healing a paper cut or as complex as a lobotomy. Learning the basics of a language like saying hello and goodbye are easy, but when you study more you can string together more words to create more complex sentences.
She then went on about the specifics of healing magic until we came across the rotting carcass of an animal. Voyd got all excited and ran up towards it. She grabbed the bugs that were eating the dead animal and tossed them in her mouth like candy. “These are delicious! Try some!” She said. “Nah I’m good.” I responded. “Your loss.” She said with her mouth full of insects. That’s disgusting, and I’m starting to feel sick. I need to get my hands on some real food soon.
Once Voyd finished eating her literal grub, we continued on to look for something that I could eat. The further from the forest we went the more desolate the area became. It felt like we could’ve walked for hours without running into a single sign of life. Just before we were ready to turn back we saw something moving in the distance. “Is that an animal?” I asked. “No, it looks like a group of people.” Voyd responded. “Are they bandits?” I asked. “No, look. There’s a wagon with them, they must be nomads.” I need to go talk to these guys, they might have some food, or need my help, or I can help them for some food.
“Alright, let’s go talk to them.” I said. “What!?” Voyd exclaimed. “Let’s go meet them.” I repeated. “We shouldn’t!” She yelled. “Why not?” I asked. “They might not be bandits but if they were able to survive out here who knows how dangerous they could be!” She said.
She’s got a point. But how am I supposed to help people out if I can’t interact with any of them? I gotta at least try, so I’ll approach them calmly and make sure they know I’m not aggressive, I’ll make my presence known from a distance and try to seem as friendly as possible. I told the elf my plan and we started off by creeping up on them until we were close enough to clearly see but still a safe distance away. However before we were able to make an introduction they started running away. I think they might’ve noticed us. I yelled at them to stop but they kept going so we chased after them. They kept running and running until eventually, one of the wheels on their wagon broke off and it came to a screeching halt. The nomads stopped and pulled out spears and bows and aimed them towards us. “Don’t come any closer!” One of them yelled. We stopped running and put our hands in the air.
“Hey hey hey, it’s ok, we’re not gonna hurt you.” I said. “Liar! Go back where you came!” They shouted. “Hold on, we just wanted to say hi and see if you had anything to trade.” I said. “If that’s true then why were you sneaking up on us like that?” They asked. “We wanted to get close without startling you guys.” I replied. “Well we don’t want to trade so begone!” They yelled.
“Please I desperately need some food, even if you guys could just show me where to get some I’d really appreciate it.” I begged them. “We don’t have any food right now, only yakadew milk.” They said. I looked over at the donkey looking thing that was pulling their wagon. “Don’t tell me, that’s a yakadew?” I said. “Yes.” They replied.
I sighed. I don’t know when my next meal will be and the milk should have plenty of nutrients. “Can I try some?” I asked. “If we give you some will you go away?” They said. “Yeah sure.” I replied.
One of the nomads handed me a water skin that was filled to the brim. I gave it a quick sniff and it smelled like normal milk. I took a small swig and it actually wasn’t bad. It tasted like normal milk with a hint of burnt toast. I drank nearly all of it then gave the rest to Voyd.
“Thank you so much.” I said. “Before we go, do you want me to fix your wagon for you?” I asked them. “I thought we told you to leave.” They said in a discerning tone. “Well yeah but the wagon breaking was kinda my fault and I want to pay you back for the milk.” I replied. “We don’t need payment for the milk.” They said.
“Cmon, there has to be something I can do for you guys. It can be anything.” I said. “Anything?” One of the men said. “No darling we shouldn’t!” A woman said. “We don’t know if we can trust them.” Said another nomad. “You know we won’t be able to get her back on our own, these two may be our only hope.” The first man said. “What is it you need help with?” I asked.
“My daughter… she was kidnapped by bandits and taken to the capital ruins. We were on our way to try to get her, but if you could do it for us I would be extremely grateful.”
Damn, it’s only been half a day and I’m already tired of running around with kids. When am I gonna get to play the knight in shining armor for some hottie? This is my first chance to bag some box since I got locked up and there isn’t a single bad bitch anywhere. I really don’t wanna have to run errands right now but if I don’t help the goddess will probably be pissed. I’ll just suck it up and try to get this done as quick as possible so I can spend the rest of the day looking for supplies.
“I’m sorry to hear that. How old’s your daughter?” I asked. “She’ll be turning twenty in about a fortnight.” He replied. Bingo! “Yeah we’ll do it.” I said. “What!?” Voyd shouted. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Do you know nothing about the capital ruins?” She exclaimed. “What’s up with the capital ruins?” I asked. “It’s the most bandit infested place in the area!” Voyd replied. “Oh that’s it? we’ll be fine.” I said.
“Seriously?” Voyd said. “Yup, trust me.” I turned back towards the nomads. “What does your daughter look like?” I asked. “She has red hair and she’s about this tall.” They replied. “Alright, we’ll do our best to get her back.” I said. “Please hurry, and be careful! She was taken by the most powerful bandit group in the region.” They said. “Got it.” I replied.
Voyd and I started to walk off towards the ruins. When we got far enough Voyd asked me, “Why are we helping them?”
“What do you mean? They gave us milk.” I said. “They already gave us the milk, we didn’t have to help them.” She said. “That’s true but supposedly this is the right thing to do.” I replied. “I don’t get it.” She said. “What don’t you get?” I asked. “Why would you want to help someone if it doesn’t benefit you?” She asked me.
I was stunned. I didn’t have an answer to give her. She thinks I’m doing this for the milk but I’m actually just trying to get a better reincarnation for the next life. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t gonna benefit me in some way. I can’t even think of a single time I’ve helped someone purely out of the kindness of my heart. Even trivial things like holding a door open for someone aren’t done out of kindness, people only do things like that so they aren’t shamed by society. No matter how hard I thought I couldn’t think of a single time I helped someone without some physical, social or emotional benefit. The truth is, we were born to be selfish creatures that only care about their own survival, but I can’t tell her that though so I have to make something up.
“I don’t know.” I said, “Sometimes you can get lucky and the universe rewards you, like how I helped you out and now you’re teaching me magic. But, you shouldn’t always expect a reward because that’s not how things work. But even if you do end up working for nothing, that’s not a bad thing, and that’s because helping others will always lead to happier lives. If everyone at least tried to help when they could, then the world would definitely be a nicer place to live. Actually, that’s probably why this world sucks so much, because no one wants to help anyone anymore.”
“Oh…” she said. “So do you get it now?” I asked. “Yeah, I think so.” She replied. It was just something I made up on the spot, but I feel like I nailed that little speech there. We continued on towards the capital ruins, the closer we got, the less plant life there was until there was nothing left but dirt covered rubble of old German styles houses, Greek pillars and statues, and classic walls and castles of early western Europe. Torn red flags and black with a yellow crest of two people holding one sword scattered the land.
“What is this place?” I asked. “This is the old capital of the Amin Empire.” She replied. “The Amin Empire?” I said confusingly. “My mom told me it was the largest empire in history. During their peak they controlled nearly the entire continent.” She said. “What else do you know about them?” I asked. “Just that the elves hated them, and also this was apparently one of the first disaster sites.” She replied. “Ah ok.” I said.
“Hey there’s something over here!” We heard a man’s voice yell in the distance. A group of about fifteen bandits approached us and ordered us to surrender. I shot their leader in the face. They started to charge at us so I had to flip the switch and mow them all down. Most of them died on the spot, some others were bleeding out on the ground. I went to interrogate one of them.
“Hey! Have you seen a girl with red hair around here anywhere?” I asked. “Why the fuck would I tell you?” The bandit responded. I shot him in the balls. Then I went onto the next bandit. “What about you? Have you seen any red heads around?” I asked. “No! I haven’t, I swear!” He screamed.
“Alright, what about the guys who run this place? Where are they at?” I asked. “Are you serious?” He said concerningly. “Yeah.” I replied. “Do you have a death wish?” He asked me. “No.” I responded. “Then you shouldn’t pick a fight with them, they’re unkillable.” He said. “Just tell me where they are.” I said. “Fine, if you wanna kill youself, then their base is in the old underground prison near the center of the ruins.” The bandit responded.
“Thanks.” I said before shooting the bandit in the head then I told Voyd, “Let’s go.” We walked towards the middle of the ruins while effortlessly taking out any bandits that tried to get in our way. We eventually found the prison entrance and a strange feeling hit me. I started feeling nervous. I shouldn’t let what that bandit said go to head. But what if he was right, and these guys really are “unkillable” then this will be where my journey ends. Oh well, I already agreed to come out here and save this girl, so here goes nothing.
Isekai: God Let Me Keep My Glock 